Comcast Takes 2014 Prize For Worst Company In America

halfEvilTech writes with news that Comcast has emerged victorious from Consumerist's annual Worst Company In America contest. Comcast narrowly edged out Monsanto in the finals with 51.5% of the vote. The reigning champion for the past two years, Electronic Arts, lost in the first round to Time Warner Cable. TWC made the quarterfinals, which is notable because Comcast has proposed a merger with TWC. In fact, Comcast submitted an FCC filing today explaining why they think the deal should be allowed. They say, 'the companies don’t overlap or compete against each other.' Other strong contenders for the Worst Company in America included Chase, SeaWorld, Wal-Mart, Bank of America, and Verizon.

Comments

What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

A video game company that makes shitty games.
Giant banking and investment firms that literally rend the economy that results in massive layoffs.

These two shouldn't even be in the same running.

Re:What a joke

[roc97007]

It could more accurately be called "the companies that geeks hate the most".

Re:What a joke

[amiga3D]

Yes. I'm surprised American Excuse...er...American Express didn't win. They don't suck, they swallow.

Re:What a joke

[Lumpy]

No, noneeks hate them as well.
Overcharging for Internet and Cable TV, Bad service, bad Customer service, refusal to listen to customers, refusal to fix customer problems if it costs money (Cables are under water and causing major problems...)

Even the employees that work there hate the company.

Re:What a joke

[amicusNYCL]

A video game company that makes shitty games.
Giant banking and investment firms that literally rend the economy that results in massive layoffs.

Welcome to the same discussion about the Worst Company In America that has been going on for the last 3 years.

Re:What a joke

[acariquara]

Not insightful, a troll at best.

Yeah, EA is a gaming company, that survives by taking money from people in exchange for shitty, overhyped products AND they have a tendency to buy smaller company that used to ship good and great products, only to apply to them the EA quality factor of zero, and basically put them to sleep, repeatedly.

Sure, they don't make tuberculosis medicine or guidance systems for airplanes. But they have hundreds of thousands people working for them at any given rate and those are pretty crappy jobs also. Not counting millions of indirect jobs.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

A video game company that makes shitty games.
Giant banking and investment firms that literally rend the economy that results in massive layoffs.

Welcome to the same discussion about the Worst Company In America that has been going on for the last 3 years.

Indeed. It should be known that these awards are awarded to the worst PR, not the company that destroyed the most lives.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

You define 'worst' in the wrong way for this 'contest'.

It's not what company does the most damage to the world. No. That list is far too tough for the consumerist to tackle.

It's what company runs their business the worst AND pisses off the most of their customers seemingly on purpose.
Who really fucks people over but doesn't really NEED to.
Who is the most clueless bunch of fucktards running a big business you are forced to deal with sometimes in your normal life.

Can you say that's not EA? Can you say that's not Comcast? Nope. Exactly.

In terms of absolute 'worst' for the planet or america or just humans in general.. Most of these companys would not be listed.
We won't even dare try to make that contest... It's too fucking scary.

Re:What a joke

[amicusNYCL]

Not necessarily the worst PR so much as the worst customer relations. If a bank implemented some of the same business practices that EA was using for its customers then you would see a lot more financial problems and angry people.

It's also highly related to recent well-publicized incidents. You can see that with SeaWorld, for example. In 2012 I think EA won because of Mass Effect 3, and in 2013 it was because of SimCity. They haven't done anything lately to piss off a lot of people even though they're probably still using a lot of the same practices. Most of the banks seem to be keeping their heads down as well. Comcast, however, has been in the news.

Re:What a joke

[Yunzil]

Yeah, EA is a gaming company, that survives by taking money from people in exchange for shitty, overhyped products

As opposed to financial companies that survive by taking money from people in exchange for ruining the global economy.

Re:What a joke

[mjwx]

Yeah, EA is a gaming company, that survives by taking money from people in exchange for shitty, overhyped products

As opposed to financial companies that survive by taking money from people in exchange for ruining the global economy.

The award was for the worst company in America, not the most evil. By the sounds of it, this bank you're talking about has been quite successful in its goals.

Re:What a joke

[MightyYar]

Yeah, my hatred for them runs deep, and far beyond my geek wish for internet with no cable.

They raised the rent on my old-ass cable modem. First from $3/month to $7/month, and then this year to $8/month. This for something that has probably been depreciated for years. Can you imagine if you brought home your new car and a year into the lease they doubled the "rent"? What a fucking ballsy move.

Dealing with their contractors is like something out of a movie. They apparently get paid by the service and not by the service call, because they never fail to find something "wrong" - and then proceed to "fix" it in the most ghetto way possible. Sorry I'm two hours late. This brand-new carefully-routed cable line? It's "old" and needs to be replaced. Here, let me drill a hole in your hardwood floor and leave the replacement hanging along the ceiling of your basement. Oh, that line up on the pole where you can see the shielding from the street because squirrels have been chewing on it? I can't fix that - you should really call customer service.

Thanks to Comcast, Verizon is not my most hated company. And that's impressive, because Verizon is basically dedicated to ruining your day. But they are of the bumbling, hilarious variety of evil. Like an evil Shemp from The Three Stooges.

Re:What a joke

[Bo'Bob'O]

It depends on what your metric is. I'd be willing to bet that these kinds of companies cause more direct, day to day anger and frustration for a large number of people. Rather then the much more indirect activities of banks.

Re:What a joke

[garcia]

Then why aren't you buying your own modem for less than $50 and saving yourself the money every month? I mean, I get it, I think Comcast is for the birds too but honestly bitching about something you can buy yourself and they'll absolutely allow you to take on all the risk for is not something to choose to complain about.

Re:What a joke

[JoeMerchant]

They raised the rent on my old-ass cable modem. First from $3/month to $7/month, and then this year to $8/month. This for something that has probably been depreciated for years. Can you imagine if you brought home your new car and a year into the lease they doubled the "rent"? What a fucking ballsy move.

They're thinking like landlords with an apartment building... and, someday, your modem will die and they'll have to give you another one - $40 out of their pocket, gotta bank up for the day that happens.

Re:What a joke

[mcrbids]

^^^ This. I bought an officially branded Comcast MODEM on ebay for $21 after shipping. It paid for itself in just 3 months, and hasn't given me a lick of trouble in YEARS.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting anon because of business relationships.

I have heard from my share of angry comcast customers. Some have really gotten a ridiculous runarounds - but the even larger group are just absolute idiots.

For these people anything that interferes with them getting to facebook and pogo is comcasts fault and the only thing way they can think of to address it is to call comcast and cry, scream, threaten or beg until someone else fixes it. The computer wont boot up? Call comcast. Not the power company, even though the lights are off, no, call comcast. Browser hijacked? Computer slow? Wireless keyboard and mouse that you have had for 2 years without changing the batteries suddenly quit working? Definitely comcasts fault. Call and keep calling till they fix it.

Now I am no fan at all of how that company runs their business, but I can also see just how difficult the task of pleasing their customers is. You can work all day and get nothing but idiots. It's relatively easy to miss someone with a real problem, like a needle in the haystack of the daily call volume.

And now, for you, please don't be offended but I am about to call you an idiot. Not the first class of idiots that call the ISP when the power goes down, no, but I am afraid you are still practicing another common form of idiocy, if a slightly less severe one.

They raised the rent on my old-ass cable modem. First from $3/month to $7/month, and then this year to $8/month. This for something that has probably been depreciated for years. Can you imagine if you brought home your new car and a year into the lease they doubled the "rent"? What a fucking ballsy move.

That's what you get for renting their modem, doh. Buy your own, and get a decent one, not the crap they rent. Renting a modem from your ISP is kind of like renting skis or skates or whatever. If you think you are getting good equipment cheap by renting you are an idiot. These are only provided so that someone who is shy about investing in their equipment at first can try the service and determine whether or not they want to keep it. If you decide to keep it the next step is to go ahead and buy your own equipment.

No ISP wants to be in the modem rental business, their employees discuss amongst themselves daily why their customers are such idiots and keep insisting on making what should be at most a temporary stopgap into a permanent arrangement, then calling and complaining about it endlessly. It's a POS, well yes it is. That's why it's out on rental. Are you a transient? Are you planning to move within the next month or two and might wind up on DSL instead of cable in the new digs? No? Then why they HELL have you still not purchased your own modem?

I bet you every call you have made the person on the other end of the call was having to stifle himself from explaining this to you plainly. Unfortunately if he did that he would be fired for being rude to a customer.

So they raise the rents, and those rents will keep going up, and the quality of the equipment will keep going down, as long as the majority of their customers continue to be such idiots and practically DEMAND that they be ripped off on modem rentals!

Re:What a joke

[symbolset]

Of course the firmware mods include a proxy server...

Re:What a joke

[MightyYar]

That's what you get for renting their modem, doh.

Well, at $3/month it seemed reasonable. A new modem was in the range of $100, so payback period seemed close to the life of the device. Now that a brand new DOCSIS 3.0 modem costs $60 and they charge $8/month? You are damned right I stopped renting!

And no, I'm not a transient per se - but the neighbors have FIOS and so I'm under the delusion that I'll get it too. My relationship with Comcast ends when FIOS shows up.

Re:What a joke

[MightyYar]

I did.

Re:What a joke

[fustakrakich]

How many complaints are on record? It seems to me if not enough people file and file over again and again until the problem is resolved, it never will be. Don't be taking surveys. File a complaint with the damn authorities.

Re:What a joke

[Dynedain]

I had 2 options when provisioning UVerse.

Provision a multi-service line (and pay monthly for their modem/router) - or - Provision an Internet-only line and pay a one-time fee for their modem/router.

I did my research. The modems are different, and the line is provisioned differently. With the multi-service modem (even if I downgraded to internet only) I could setup passthrough and handle things with my own router. With the one-time-fee router, that functionality was blocked. Also, provisioning the line for multi-service and downgrading service to internet-only allowed for higher internet speeds than provisioning the line as internet-only.

So at least on UVerse, there was no option to not pay an equipment rental fee and get their maximum speed service.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

That's completely ridiculous. I would be tempted to go back to dial-up rather than deal with such a clueless company. Unfortunate that in many parts of the US those are your only options.

I dont know about the UVerse modems but the Comcast multi-service modems are really really quirky and unreliable. Even in gateway mode ("passthrough") they do not always work correctly. And in 20 years with ISPs I have never heard of one being anything but happy to provision the customers modem.

Re:What a joke

[Darinbob]

"Even the employees that work there hate the company."
But isn't that true of a very large fraction of companies in the world?

Re:What a joke

[Darinbob]

I have u-verse internet only service. I assumed in advance that only their routers would work with their protocols (I assumed it was true for comcast but guess I was wrong). I don't deal with networking a lot, so I 'm not really sure what passthrough is. Sounds like you could get a second router but I'm not sure what that buys you (except maybe to get better wifi which it needs).

But it was so much better than my previous earthlink that I didn't notice anything wrong (ie, it only served one MAC address at a time unless you paid extra for family plan).

Re:What a joke

[Darinbob]

Sounds like my DirecTV slightly. I have the tivo version, and while I own it outright they charge a fee for tivo service which has slowly gone up over time (now I think it's $10/mo). The new DirecTV+Tivo that they're advertising however can not be purchased outright, and you pay $10/mo rental but without the tivo fee (ha!).

Overall though DirecTV has been vastly cheaper than comcast so I can't complain too much. Just over time it's been rising to where it's $70/month total which seems high (including stupid sports fee that I never watch). Equipment is getting old and I don't plan on replacing it.

Re:What a joke

[AlphaWolf_HK]

I don't see why Monsanto is in this. GMO is a good thing; it currently plays a major role in the green revolution that is quite literally ending world hunger. There is no credible evidence of it being harmful. Monsanto isn't the only company behind it. The patent infringement lawsuit wasn't over what the majority seem to think it was over (the ONE farmer that was sued actually deliberately knew he was infringing, and they quite conclusively proved it; this wasn't a case of random cross-pollination.)

The biggest groups against Monsanto are mainly the organic farmers, and they actually have a set of much more nefarious motives:

- Organic farming makes much higher profit margins than GMO, so there IS money in it for them. Lots and lots of money. GMO is their biggest competitor, so it only makes sense for them to demonize it. Sadly, the hipsters have bought into it, and usually they are the least likely to buy into propaganda.
- Reverting to Organic farming will destroy the green revolution, and countries like India will once again see famine if that came to pass.
- Organic farming requires much more landmass than modern methods. If you're an environmentalist of any sort, you should very much be against organic farming as it necessitates e.g. deforestation.
- There aren't enough natural resources in the world to sustain the current human population with organic farming (hence point number 2.)

Being anti-GMO is every bit as destructive, stupid, and naive as being anti-vaccination, and it's about time that people realize this.

Re:What a joke

[niftymitch]

Then why aren't you buying your own modem for less than $ ......

Yes and note well that comcast has begun playing games and selling
WiFi connectivity to the likes of AT&T to pump up their bandwidth
failure.

Since Comcast owns the hardware they have started installing modified
software and opening up "guest" accounts that they control.

So far they seem to have taken off some endpoint bandwidth caps
and those that have identified this do not seem to suffer bandwidth losts
HOWEVER you pay for the power and they sell a service.

IMO, If they sell a service that is available 7x24 they should be paying for
AC power and physical plant data closet rates... Sure it is only ---
but worse if they also sold access to the NSA.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

You are either a merchant who hates the higher fees or a deadbeat who can't pay their bills on time. To the customers that pay their bills on time American Express rules!

Re:What a joke

[daem0n1x]

I don't see why Monsanto is in this. GMO is a good thing; it currently plays a major role in the green revolution that is quite literally ending world hunger.

Are you a shill? You sure sound like one. The world already produces enough food for everyone, it simply isn't properly distributed. That "world hunger" jingle is cynical bullshit.

Re:What a joke

[Vlado]

Company giving you bad cell/internet service is considered more important (and as a result worse) than company that on a global scale potentially causes health problems and effectively attempts to control which food you'll be allowed to eat?

Priorities?

Re:What a joke

[L4t3r4lu5]

Passthrough, in this instance, is where your company-supplied router has all of the functionality apart from the modem disabled; It is set up to pass all data straight out to the LAN side of the device. You then have a second router, purchased by yourself and set up how you wish, handling all LAN services; DHCP, NAT, SPI etc. This has two major benefits;

- The device provided by your ISP is almost guaranteed to be the cheapest crap they can get away with calling an Integrated Service Router; It will fall over faster than you can reboot it. Taking all services away from this device, apart from passing packets from the ISP to the LAN, is good for your network uptime.
- Your ISP provided device is probably hooked up with any number of backdoors for service reps to help Grandma Lilly connect her wireless printer, or meter your LAN traffic and bill you for it (I forget who did that, but I laughed when I read it). Having another router inside the LAN, after the ISP's device, ensures that the CSR's on the support desk can't access your LAN. Ever. They can't see traffic, they can't tell how many devices you have, nothing.

My home network is set up exactly like this, only I go one step further and have my own router pass all traffic through a VPN. There is just no way for the ISP to know anything about my internet usage, only how many bits it passes for me.

As for serving one MAC address, that's exactly why a lot of ISRs in the early - mid 2000s had MAC cloning as a feature; Set up your modem on your PC, then tell your router to clone your PC NIC's MAC address. BOOM instant internet sharing, and the ISP is none the wiser.

Re:What a joke

[Gavagai80]

I bought my own modem years ago. Several times since then, Comcast has slipped the $8 rental charge back onto my my bill and I have to waste hours arguing it back off. That's why I hate comcast.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, all these big companies suck. Verizon screwed me when I switched to Comcast, and I'm sure that given a chance Comcast will screw me too. But they have little I want - I'm internet only (so far it has been fine - decent service for a decent price, and I bought my own equipment so no fees for that stuff) so as long as Netflix works I'm happy, and so far it has been. I can't really get all worked up over it.

Re:What a joke

[Jason Levine]

Perhaps people oppose Monsanto because of this tactic:

1) Claim a patent on seeds Monsanto makes.
2) Get some farmers to buy the seeds.
2 a) Lock the farmers in by stipulating that they can't take any seeds the plant produces and plant them again next year... like people have done for thousands of years!
3) Find a nearby farmer who isn't buying Monsanto and claim they they've planted Monsanto.
4) Find one instance of their plants growing on that farmer's land. (Ignore that seeds travel by air/animals and spread... like seeds have done for millions of years!)
5) Tie up the farmer in court until they either agree to buy Monsanto or they go bankrupt.
6) Repeat 2a - 5.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

This.

Furthermore, people (inexplicably, to me) voluntarily give money to EA. When banksters get bailed out, people are forced to give them money INvoluntarily.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife used to wonder why I hated Comcast so much. After living on her own while working a year long contract where Comcast is the local provider she's joined in my hatred. She had to switch apartments and contacted Comcast beforehand to make sure she had everything lined up to transfer the connection on the move date. The day she moved it took FOUR HOURS dealing with people to transfer the currently functioning apartment from the previous account to her account. It was mostly bouncing between incompetent non-fluent customer service agent to another with several disconnects and restarts. Eventually she acquired the one competent agent who fixed everything the previous agents had messed up (including completely cancelling her previous account). That final agent took all of 15 minutes of her time. We did make sure to call back to their management and complain about the previous agents and highly praise the final one.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

"The starving children in Africa are welcome to my lima beans." - Every American six-year-old

Re:What a joke

[crtreece]

If you don't want to worry about what the comcast firmware might be up to, you could also use a third party modem from Motorola, Cisco, Netgear, or some others. Comcast has a site that lists compatible modems, based on your service type, and what level of level of testing they did with those modems.

I paid more than $21 for my motorola modem. But 9 months later I've recouped that cost and don't have to worry about what shenanegins Comcast might be playing with the firmware. I know that doesn't do any thing to stop their traffic shaping/throttling and deep packet inspection, but that what pointing the internal routers at a VPN is for.

Re:What a joke

[Grishnakh]

I have FIOS available at my house and I opted for Comcast. Why? Simple: price. Comcast is at least $20/month cheaper. I was smart enough to buy my own modem (got it at Target for $50 IIRC, just DOCSIS2 Motorola Surfboard), and other than having to wait several days for a technician to show up for the installation (for some reason they need to send someone, instead of doing it remotely like my own cableco Cox), everything's been working mostly OK.

My neighbors, who had FIOS, had to regularly reboot their FIOS box (which was located in my garage; we share the same property) because the thing was flaky.

Re:What a joke

[Grishnakh]

This is America; the authorities don't care, and are in bed with the companies they're supposed to be regulating.

Re:What a joke

[MightyYar]

To be honest, I would probably use both. I'd just play them off of one another for their intro deals.

Re:What a joke

[fustakrakich]

They would if enough people complained and actually started to vote them out. But that is not likely to happen if the TV works at all and there is plenty of instant dinners in the freezer. Comcast is merely being opportunistic. I can't really fault them for their success.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

The mortgage Armageddon was easy to predict, so I got a nice house for cheap.
My investments are also fine. I suspect yours have also recovered.

On the other hand if TWC and Comcast can crush net neutrality, you will see the flow of information crippled.. Information we use to predict financial problems and mortgage Armageddons, as well as do our jobs, enjoy our free time, and enrich our lives.

So some periodic financial issues vs permanently crippling the flow of information.. Yeah, I know which one I think will be worse for the species.

Re:What a joke

[Enigma2175]

Perhaps people oppose Monsanto because of this tactic:

1) Claim a patent on seeds Monsanto makes.
2) Get some farmers to buy the seeds.
2 a) Lock the farmers in by stipulating that they can't take any seeds the plant produces and plant them again next year... like people have done for thousands of years!
3) Find a nearby farmer who isn't buying Monsanto and claim they they've planted Monsanto.
4) Find one instance of their plants growing on that farmer's land. (Ignore that seeds travel by air/animals and spread... like seeds have done for millions of years!)
5) Tie up the farmer in court until they either agree to buy Monsanto or they go bankrupt.
6) Repeat 2a - 5.

Your steps seem accurate up to #3. In the only case I have seen about this (the Percy Schmeiser case in Canada) the farmer intentionally killed the part of his crop that was not contaminated so that he could identify the plants that had been cross contaminated with the monsanto genes. He then planted ONLY THAT SEED for the express purpose of using Roundup pesticide on the resulting crop. This wasn't a case of "find one instance of their plants growing on that farmer's land", it was a case of the farmer taking specific steps to isolate the roundup-ready seeds and use them for their pesticide resistance. Here is a story from NPR that discusses that case, hardly a source that would be biased for Monsanto. Monsanto specifically addresses the issue on their site as well, claiming "Monsanto has never sued a farmer when trace amounts of our patented seeds or traits were present in the farmer’s field as an accident or as a result of inadvertent means.". If you have a source to refute that claim then please provide it.

I know that spelling out the facts for you probably won't change your mind on this issue but maybe if someone is actually looking for actual truths instead of strawmen it will help them. I hate Monsanto as much as the next guy, but there are plenty of legitimate reasons to hate them - you don't have to resort to claims that aren't supported by facts.

Re:What a joke

[avandesande]

The trick is to ask the support person to have your account closed and then they will connect you with someone that can help you.

Re:What a joke

[DaveV1.0]

Make a case for why American Express sucks or, as you put it, swallows.

Re:What a joke

[DaveV1.0]

Your ad hominem attack shows you have no actual argument to support your position.

Re:What a joke

[daem0n1x]

My argument is in my comment.

Re:What a joke

[AlphaWolf_HK]

A more accurate term would be "apologetic" rather than shill. No, I'm not being paid. It's hard to speak up for yourself when you are the one being attacked. Try being a white guy speaking against these guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

As bullshit as it is, you can't speak against it if you're white. Why? Well because you have a conflict of interest, therefore most people will automatically be less willing to believe you. Sometimes, for this reason some groups need an outside advocate. Monsanto has been demonized by the organic movement. Have they done some things wrong? Yeah. And so have we all. But this campaign against them is unjustified if not downright evil. In that case, here I am, an outside advocate who has no conflict of interest.

Also, your statement about food just being improperly distributed is only a result of the green revolution. Without it, and without GMO foods, there simply aren't enough resources available to feed the whole world on organic food. It's just not going to happen. You can thank companies like Monsanto for that one, but instead you want them burned at the stake for what you perceive as witchcraft.

Re:What a joke

[daem0n1x]

Also, your statement about food just being improperly distributed is only a result of the green revolution. Without it, and without GMO foods, there simply aren't enough resources available to feed the whole world on organic food. It's just not going to happen. You can thank companies like Monsanto for that one, but instead you want them burned at the stake for what you perceive as witchcraft.

You're trying to bullshit me using a false choice: Between GMO and 100% organic. Good luck with that. Do your rhetoric fallacies work with your friends?

Re:What a joke

[AlphaWolf_HK]

And you're trying to bullshit me by saying I'm giving you a choice. I'm not giving you any choice, and I'm not denying you any choice either. What I'm saying is that we can't live on 100% organic. Analogies to harnessing zero point energy come to mind; it's just not going to happen. We also can't live on 0% GMO either; if we end that, then countries which have ended famine in recent decades will have to go back to famine. That is a fact.

We've already outgrown what the planet's resources are capable of giving us. That doesn't mean we have to shrink or even stop growing, it just means we have to adapt. GMO is part of that adaptation.

Looking at your post history, you're quite an asshole to everybody you talk to. There are many categories of assholes, and I can already tell that you're in the grade A category. You also seem to think that you have all of life's problems already sorted out, and that everybody simply needs to place their nose in your ass to reach paradise. I'm going to tell you right now though that you're quite wrong, and in fact people following you is a surefire way for their lives to become shitty.

You also seem to consider Europe to be "the rest of the world" and yet also somehow better than the rest of the world. Typical self centered asshole. Next time you start a world war I'll make sure the occupiers say hello.

Re:What a joke

[daem0n1x]

And you're trying to bullshit me by saying I'm giving you a choice. I'm not giving you any choice, and I'm not denying you any choice either. What I'm saying is that we can't live on 100% organic.

Please tell me where in my posts I defend that we should go 100% organic.

Analogies to harnessing zero point energy come to mind; it's just not going to happen. We also can't live on 0% GMO either; if we end that, then countries which have ended famine in recent decades will have to go back to famine. That is a fact.

It's a fact just because you say it. I love the smell of unsubstantiated facts in the morning.

We've already outgrown what the planet's resources are capable of giving us. That doesn't mean we have to shrink or even stop growing, it just means we have to adapt. GMO is part of that adaptation.

Leaving our food safety in the hands of patent-holding capitalist corporations is the way to go? Creating artificial scarcity by means of IP?

Looking at your post history, you're quite an asshole to everybody you talk to. There are many categories of assholes, and I can already tell that you're in the grade A category. You also seem to think that you have all of life's problems already sorted out, and that everybody simply needs to place their nose in your ass to reach paradise. I'm going to tell you right now though that you're quite wrong, and in fact people following you is a surefire way for their lives to become shitty.

This has nothing to do with the argument, but OK, I'll admit I have a temper. I should be more moderated. But at least I'm straightforward. In your first reply you jump to the conclusion that I "perceive GMO as witchcraft", which is quite insulting. Unlike me, you're all Mr. Nice Guy, but in the end, you are simply an asshole in a subtler way.

You also seem to consider Europe to be "the rest of the world" and yet also somehow better than the rest of the world. Typical self centered asshole. Next time you start a world war I'll make sure the occupiers say hello.

That's quite incorrect. While I believe Europe is the best place to live in, it has many problems. You probably haven't read my comments harshly criticising EU politics. And you probably also haven't read my arguments with some people here that bash Americans, Chinese, Arabs or Africans simply out of ignorance.

Re:What a joke

[AlphaWolf_HK]

Please tell me where in my posts I defend that we should go 100% organic.

I didn't say you did. Honestly dude you're reading way too far into my posts, just like you do with everybody else. First you attack me (accuse me of being a shill) and then you accuse me of saying things I didn't even say. I'm not bothering with the rest of your post, just go ahead and fuck yourself already.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

As a Comcrap employee I'll agree Comcast is the worst.

loool

[slashmydots]

If they would have finished the merger, TWC and Comcast could have had a Hunger Games ending type thing going on where they both win by default :-D

Re:loool

[Calydor]

And this is not the case with them as separate entities?

Re:loool

[Anonymous Coward]

If they would have finished the merger, TWC and Comcast could have had a Hunger Games ending type thing going on where they both win by default :-D

Can we make them eat the berries?

Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Quality of internet access is viewed as more important than food quality.

Re:Times have changed

[amiga3D]

If food quality was important McDonald's would not exist.

Re:Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Quality of internet access is viewed as more important than food quality.

No, actually I'd say people don't give a shit about either one of them pretty equally.

If they did, we wouldn't have 3rd world countries laughing at our broadband infrastructure, and we wouldn't be winning the obesity race with a metric fuckton of overprocessed, genetically manipulated shit that lobbyists pay the FDA to legally label "food".

Re:Times have changed

[acariquara]

Depends on what you call "quality". I assume you are speaking from a first world point of view, regarding nutrition values, calories, fat, salt and whatnot. Sure, ol'McD [sorry] isn't as healthy as a whole-food salad and salmon plate. But compared to street food found in most 3rd world countries, a Big Mac is usually safer.

It's junk food, and will probably kill you, just not from dysenteria.

Re:Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

would give you all the mod points if i had any

Re:Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, last year, we got surpassed by Mexico. We're number two now! Sadly, it's not because we got any healthier. They just got fatter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Re:Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

No no,

Fast Food, is still food. Most of the health problems from fast food comes from how it's cooked (eg deep fried in animal fat (lard) or hydrogenated vegetable oil), or cross-contamination by workers. Aside from that the only reason McDonalds and Walmart end up on these bad company lists as that they are low-hanging fruit paying their employees non-living wages that let them collect food stamps.

By comparison banks can, and will completely ruin the country through purely short-term profit-driven reasons. It doesn't matter if the target is a little guy or a big guy.

Now the reason Telco's end up on the list is a little from column A and a little from Column B. Column A: Poor quality services from poorly paid staff (really, try outsourced to India and Philippines), poor management who outsourced jobs, leaving few domestic staff to clean up the mess the outsourcers make. and Column B: In the pursuit of short term profits they merge with other companies, and then close down the ones that make less money, eliminating competition.

The best thing that would happen to America would be if Net Neutrality rules dictate that providers of Internet "pipes" and providers of internet "last mile" can not be the same company. Hell the last mile should be owned by the city since they own the right of ways.

Re:Times have changed

[nurb432]

But its evil GMO!

Has it gone too far lately without proper testing and oversight? Perhaps, but If it wasn't for GMO we might all be starving at this point..

Re:Times have changed

[JimSadler]

Americans may eat a lousy bunch of fast,junk food, but at the same time we seem to be living a lot longer than my grandparents generation. We just might be overly focused on diet in relation to health and longevity. If we took a teen off of all forms of junk food and measured his health over time and compared him to a similar teen who simply had to complete 45 minutes of controlled exercise every day we just might find that exercise trumps diet. And then there are things like clean air that might have more impact than diet. My personal bet would be that crowded, urban environments predict doom far more than either diet or exercise. Eventually we will see the light and realize that all the factors are vital. Diet,exercise, clean air and water, and lack of crowding are all required for a good outcome for most people.

Re:Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Statistically, based on your post you're likely to be obese.

If we took a teen off of all forms of junk food and measured his health over time and compared him to a similar teen who simply had to complete 45 minutes of controlled exercise every day we just might find that exercise trumps diet.

Overweight people are more likely to think lack of exercise causes obesity. Those who are a healthy weight tend to believe diet causes weight gain

Re:Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Statistically, based on your post you're likely to not exercise.
Since the OP said exercise improves health, and nothing about weight,
Scientists Discover Why Exercise Makes You Smarter.

Re:Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, you must be one of those "obesity is perfectly healthy" morons. Enjoy your diabetic retinopathy and wounds that don't heal.

Re:Times have changed

[antifoidulus]

Anecdote I know, but when I was in Thailand I got really bad food poisoning from McDonalds, however all the street food I ate never once gave me trouble.

Re:Times have changed

[niftymitch]

Americans may eat a lousy bunch of fast,junk food, but at the same time we seem to be living a lot longer than my grandparents generation. .....snip....

With the existing data this does not seem to hold up. In populations where it can be measured
in the US there seems to be at best a two year advantage. That alone might be counted
by improvements in pneumonia treatment.

Now the obese generation in their 40s +/- may prove an entirely different set of
complications and medical issues. Perhaps the push to eliminate tobacco will
balance the scales but obesity is going to hammer quality of life in old age metrics.

Re:Times have changed

[geekymachoman]

Here in BKK where I live, millions upon millions of people are eating street food daily... and for 2 years already, from people I know... I never heard anybody dying or getting sick. What makes street food not healthy is sugar, MSG and other additives (but the amount of it pales in comparison to your big mac).

In fact.. when I compare westerner(usually those big mac eating ones) and locals(street food ones you talking about)... it sickens me. Overweight fake food eating Americans and Europeans walking around it's easier to jump over them then it is to go pass them. Do you think that's healthy ?

What makes McDonalds and other fast food chains and food in general, not healthy is like stated above.. number of additives/chemicals in it.

Basically... you shouldn't trust anything other than 100 % natural and naturally grown product. Why I know ? Because I grew up without electricity in a war torn country. The food that I had available was 100 % organic grown by me, my neighbors and people from villages around my village. When you cut the tomato in half, your whole house smells of it. That is a tomato.. the thing you eating now if you live in any modern city, is not a tomato no matter what you may think. It's devoid of 80 % of what tomato should be. How or why I don't know. Maybe it's GMO, maybe it's been frozen 20 times .. no idea. I just know I haven't seen a tomato looong time and I miss it. As well as cheese, not that sliced shit you buy in 7/11 or wherever .. wrapped in plastic.

For the record I eat fast food like McD too and sometimes I even drink coke.

Re:Times have changed

[dknight]

Interestingly, I once ate McDonalds every day for a year and a half and suffered no adverse/ill effects (I was - and am - quite healthy, in fact).

Plural of anecdote is not data, blah blah blah.

Re:Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Mmmm, pink slime. Part of a health diet.

first world problems...

[Anonymous Coward]

don't get me wrong though. slightly bad hi-speed internet and cable TV service is right up there with starvation and ethnic cleansing.

Americans sure like to bitch about stuff.

Re:first world problems...

[thewolfkin]

I think that's unfair. We all laugh and joke about First World problems, but just because they're first world problems doesn't mean they aren't problems. It may not be up there with starvation and ethnic cleansing but Monopolies are still a problem. It's just as wrong to ignore them because someone else is doing something worse.

Re:first world problems...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just as wrong to ignore them because someone else is doing something worse.

Exactly - that's precisely how our "first world" problems become nightmares. Papers and sexual molestation while boarding planes? No big deal - it's not like we're Iran. Widespread surveillance on everyone, in violation of the Constitution? Psshaw, at least we're not in Somalia.

Invading another country due to dubious circumstances? LOOK OVER THERE! NORTH KOREA! LOL!

The, "But, but, those other people are doing worse things!" crowd is perhaps the largest danger ever visited upon free and responsible government.

Re:first world problems...

[Sponge Bath]

...starvation and ethnic cleansing.

I did not see that on the telefied looky box, my Comcast cable went out.

Re:first world problems...

[DarwinSurvivor]

Ironically Iran has some of the best (and safest) airports in the world because they have actual trained people looking for subtle body language. Instead of singling out someone by their heritage, they check out people who are wearing large coats in the summer (hiding something?), breaking out in sweats in the winter, acting especially nervous, watching one of their bags continuously while completely ignoring the others, traveling in a very spread out group, etc.

Re:first world problems...

[garcia]

The real irony is that you've confused Iran and Israel.

Re:first world problems...

[Arker]

Huh?

It appears you are confused. The Israelis also have agents that supposedly have special abilities in reading body-language as well, so that part of the description could apply to both places, however the mention of not "singling out someone by their heritage" makes it clear we are referring to Iran not Israel. The Israelis single people out according to heritage as explicit policy, as many US Citizen of Palestinian heritage have been made painfully aware.

Re:first world problems...

[lonOtter]

I would rather just not have government thugs harassing people in airports. Screw any 'safety' that this may provide; I'll do without.

Re:first world problems...

[Ksevio]

Tip: Avoid unnecessary tags in your posts like "tt" and your post will be much easier to read!

Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that one would win hands down, were it an option.

Re:Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[amiga3D]

They are not a corporation. They are owned by corporations.

Re:Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't that make them a jointly-owned subsidiary?

Re:Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[rmdingler]

Oddly enough, no... they are a wholly-owned superior.

Re:Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[Anonymous Coward]

No. You already voted for them in the general election.

Re:Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've looked at the so called 3rd party options to the Democrats and Republicans.

They are all worse.

And the Libertarians are just extreme right-wing Republicans, despite the rhetoric.

When they had Ron Paul on their ballot, it was the most right-wing republican in congress. Not just at that time, but since WWII.

Re:Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[lonOtter]

I've looked at the so called 3rd party options to the Democrats and Republicans.

You weren't looking very hard.

They are all worse.

What could be worse than the Patriot Act, draconian copyright laws, free speech zones, constitution-free zones, DUI checkpoints, the NSA's mass surveillance, the drug war, the TSA, any war we've fought in the last several decades, unfettered border searches, stop-and-frisk, mass surveillance of public places, and all the other garbage the two main parties have subjected us to? In "the land of the free", freedom should be considered the most important issue, so even a party with (say) terrible economic policies would be better than these fucking scumbags.

Well Deserved

[Anonymous Coward]

My dealings with Comcast have been few but boy have they been terrible. From being accused of stealing their equipment, to getting billed seven times in a single month, I've had a lifetime of customer dissatisfaction in just a few short months of dealing with them. Well deserved honor Comcast.

Re:Well Deserved

[Mitreya]

I've had a lifetime of customer dissatisfaction in just a few short months of dealing with them.

Well, what do you expect?
Why would a monopoly bother to serve their (captive) customers well?

If we don't create significant viable competition, this will continue. No amount of public shaming will help.

Re:Well Deserved

[Anonymous Coward]

I was eating dinner tonight watching TV when this new comcast / xfinity commercial came on.

The basic punchline was that this guy was happy to finally get rid of fios and switch back to xfinity.

This is literally the only time in my entire life that I've _actually_ had milk coming out of my nose. It actually hurt a lot :(

"I just couldn't wait to get out of my contract" was the line that killed me right as I was talking a sip.

Re:Well Deserved

[mmell]

Don't forget the part where they encrypted their cable offerings to force use of their (modestly priced) rental equipment. In one stroke, they rendered every digital tuner device in my possession worthless.

Until I bought an antenna. Boy, they must hate that, eh?

Re:Well Deserved

[Trimaxion]

Until I bought an antenna. Boy, they must hate that, eh?

^^ This a million times. If you don't like Comcast, TWC, etc., give them the middle finger and cancel your TV service. Put up a decent antenna, perhaps buy a TiVo if you want a turnkey DVR appliance with a good UI (and pay their outrageous one-time service fee), and enjoy your uncompressed HD content from all the major broadcast networks.

I'm *still* stuck paying into the local cable monopoly to get internet access, but I'm paying them a lot less than I was before. It didn't take me long to break even on my antenna/wiring/tivo/etc costs.

Re:Well Deserved

[Anonymous Coward]

Comcast, there's no words to properly describe just how fucked-up they are.
I know a family who's household member died and had a Comcast account.
The sorry-ass Comcast people wouldn't change billing info or terminate or change service without consent of the dead family member!
The battle between Comcast and the family of the dead person went on for months including Comcast wanting to send the account to collection!
Comcast should be broken-up, it's beyond broken.

Re:Well Deserved

[Ardipithecus]

Got three antennas and goodbye to Comcast. I have helped two other families do the same, good for the budget.

Re:Well Deserved

[azcoyote]

Yeah, every so often they decide once again that the cable modem that I own must somehow belong to them, and they start billing me for renting my own equipment.

Re:Well Deserved

[raind]

One of our remote sites was getting billed for disconnected internet access for almost 2 years, I found that out month ago, when I asked for credit it was sent to "mgmt" and haven't got back to me.

Re:Well Deserved

[Anonymous Coward]

My first Comcast story:

So I cancelled my account with Comcast and moved to a new house. Then, at my new house, I got a bill for a cable modem rental that I never had (I bought my modem). Not only did I never rent a modem from them, but they somehow get my new address and send me a bill for it.

I call customer service, they say "Ok, I see that you never rented a modem, I'll clear that up." A month later, I get another bill. I call up customer service again and tell them "No offense to you, I need to talk to a manager... last time a service rep was unable to help." I get a call back from a manager who says they're going to clear it up and blank out my balance due. Ok, fine.

Another month goes by and I get another bill. I call them up again and insist on talking to a manager. "Oh, this isn't balance due, it's money we owe you". "Well then, why didn't you cut a damned check instead of sending me bills?". "I'll get that check out to you now."

So, it took 1 rep and 2 managers to figure out that this bill, which had no hyphens or change in color or any way to differentiate a credit from a charge, was actually a credit that they had spent a few dollars notifying me about instead of just writing me the damned check and leaving me alone.

I realize they are just people and can make mistakes, but there is something fundamentally stupid about spending months telling someone you owe them money when you could have solved it the first time around by writing a check.

Re:Well Deserved

[Ksevio]

The best thing about dropping cable is you can look at monthly expenses and say "Wow I can get Hulu and Netflix and an antenna every month and still be paying less!"

Re:Well Deserved

[warpuck]

My bill doubled in 5 years. I guess i should have been happy because they upgraded me without asking 1st. I get 10 OTA signals with multiple side channels on each. Comcast has a monopoly in my area (City of Detroit). The other SE Michgan cities that allow cable systems to compete. Comcast is 40% cheaper for the same sevices in those areas. I guess sombody had to pay for the merger with Time Warner. They asked why I was discontinuing service. My reply was "If i went to my boss and said I want a 10% raise per year and by the way I am going work 6 hrs a day for 8 hours pay too. What is the probability I would still be working there the next day ?"

Seems dubious to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to question the methodology here, I doubt that one in three people have even heard of Monsanto and have any idea what they do.

Not defending Monsanto but this smells like a targeted "survey" from a group with an agenda.

Just my $0.02

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[roc97007]

This is only one data point, but it seems like every third forward on my Facebook account is another anti-Monsanto amateur ad. Going by that, I would say that quite a few people have heard the name. Whether they are really acquainted with the issues, of course, is a different matter.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[amiga3D]

I'd bet less than one in a hundred people on the street could tell you who Monsanto is. Just because they're notorious here means nothing in the real world.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Trashcan Romeo]

That was Michael Imperioli's character on the "The Sopranos", yeah?

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Matheus]

Ya... AC who thinks no one knows who Monsanto is sounds like a targeted "shill" trying to discredit the survey!

Honestly Monsanto is the food industry's Comcast. They are HUGE and virtually unavoidable in that space. They produce a bunch of probably fine products (I'm FAR from Anti-GMO in my personal sentiments and IF Comcast were my ISP I'd be getting better bandwidth than I am at the moment) BUT they perform their business in the most despicable ways (Which makes it really hard to defend GMO when they are the poster-child.)

Both organizations are severely guilty of criminally Anti-competitive activities yet the U.S. Gov't seems unwilling or able to prosecute. (Add to that list Ticketmaster/Live Nation... how the $%c& did they approve *that merger?!) so it's probably a forgone conclusion that Comcast+TWC will happen eventually if not now.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Matheus]

Not sure which 'real world' you live in but nearly 100% of the people in my sphere know who Monsanto is (whether they are casually aware, blindly reactionary or truly informed about what they do aside). I don't know everyone so my own anecdotal statistics are only worth what they are BUT I'm personally aware of entire classes of people who are intimately aware of Monsanto that amount to WAY more than 1% of the U.S. at least. Numerous foreign governments have banned their products so there is a decent amount of international awareness (or at least fear of the concept/unknown).

Roughly 1% of our country work in the Ag business and I guarantee *all of them are intimately aware of Monsanto and their dealings. (numbers not accounted for above... I don't spend much time in the Agricultural community)

Sorry your circles are not in the know but frankly your sample seems to be a bit off from the whole.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Trailer Trash]

Koch Industries is your first clue about what this is about. Let's face it: nobody has heard of them except from the looney left frothing at the mouth over the evil Koch Brothers. Certainly they're not a well-known company that is selling goods directly to consumers, and quite frankly their business practices don't directly affect anybody. Same with Monsanto. I don't like a lot of their practices but I also don't directly do business with them.

Comcast, on the other hand, is well-known for terrible customer service and all that. Putting all of these on the same page makes the whole thing kind of surreal.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[amiga3D]

I think it would be an interesting survey. Too bad Jay Leno is retired as this would be an interesting "Jaywalking" question. Maybe one in a hundred is off a little but I'm sure that most people wouldn't know. The only place I hear much about them is on slashdot and they never come up in a casual conversation. No doubt an agricultural environment would be much more aware of them.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[bondsbw]

Monsanto is the reason my grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer several years ago (and why he received a nice settlement as part of a class action suit).

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Still, near 100% hatred amongst everyone who knows you is a pretty impressive track record.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[gmhowell]

Sorry your circles are not in the know but frankly your sample seems to be a bit off from the whole.

Whereas yours is perfectly representative?

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[mea_culpa]

I've been quite pleased with the quality of Monsanto products. I use RoundUP grass and weed killer to keep my landscaping tidy without fail.
I'm sure those in the agriculture industry also appreciate their service. I don't agree with some of their offerings but from a customer service standpoint I have no complaints.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Look everybody: Another 1 line fart reply from gmhowell the literary genius (not).

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

lmao, you're right. All he can manage is 1 sentence at a time due to his meds.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL!

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Jarik C-Bol]

Monsanto should have won this. Comcast merely hates its own customers. Monsanto actively hunts down and destroys peoples livelihoods.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Jarik C-Bol]

Its not their weed killer and customer service that is in question with Monsanto, its the fact that they hunt down and sue people who's crops have accidentally cross pollinated with their neighbors crops, and now carry Monsanto's patented genes. Its the fact that they have been infinitely careless with their genetically modified crops, such that some have escaped into the wild to a degree that it is virtually impossible to find wild samples of the plants in question that do not contain the modified genes Monsanto developed.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[will_die]

And the majority of those people are part of the idiot, anti-science problem.
take for example a bunch of stupid anti-Monsanto slides that have come out in the past few weeks about how another country banned all of their products. If you go read the real reason you find it was only banned in one portion of th country and only certain products and the reason was that country was afraid of uprising and the products chemicals could be used to make explosives.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[will_die]

Name one lawsuit of them goin after a person who had accidental cross pollination and that person did not go out of their way to make use of that fact.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[lonOtter]

To begin with, it's absolute garbage that you even need their permission. Our system is fucked, and they're corrupt pieces of shit for making use of it.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Guru2Newbie]

Here it is:

Monsanto using MPAA and RIAA tactics (Score:0) by Anonymous Coward on Tue Apr 08, '14 06:24 PM (#46700087)

Monsanto and Cargil do some really shitty things with their IP when it comes to their seeds - like suing farmers for having Monsanto's crops growing in their fields when they weren't purchased and suing seed washers for alleged violations of IP.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno if this is a distinctly American phenomenon but when people say "the real world" they usually mean "the world I live in". As if someone else's life experience is less valid because they have more money than me or because they work in academia. It's a rather egotistical phrase.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Enigma2175]

Here it is:

Monsanto using MPAA and RIAA tactics (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Tue Apr 08, '14 06:24 PM (#46700087)

Monsanto and Cargil do some really shitty things with their IP when it comes to their seeds - like suing farmers for having Monsanto's crops growing in their fields when they weren't purchased and suing seed washers for alleged violations of IP.

That wasn't a case of cross-pollination at all, that was a case of a farmer (who normally used Monsanto seed and had a contract with them) buying soybeans intended for consumption, planting them and spraying them with roundup to kill any non-roundup ready stock, then using that seed stock year after year for planting. The supreme court ruled (9-0) that he was intentionally violating the patent that Monsanto holds on that variety of Soy. Bowman's defense was "patent exhaustion", basically the right to sell something that you had previously bought. The courts found that this was not the case and ruled that Bowman was creating new copies of a patented invention and so patent exhaustion did not apply. From the Supreme Court decision:

the purchaser of that article could make and sell endless copies, the patent would effectively protect the invention for just a single sale. Bowman himself disputes none of this analysis as a general matter: He forthrightly acknowledges the “well settled” principle “that the exhaustion doctrine does not extend to the right to ‘make’ a new product.” Brief for Petitioner 37 (citing Aro, 365 U. S., at 346).
Unfortunately for Bowman, that principle decides this case against him. Under the patent exhaustion doctrine, Bowman could resell the patented soybeans he purchased from the grain elevator; so too he could consume the beans himself or feed them to his animals. Monsanto, although the patent holder, would have no business interfering in those uses of Roundup Ready beans. But the exhaustion doctrine does not enable Bowman to make additional patented soybeans without Monsanto’s permission (either express or implied). And that is precisely what Bowman did. He took the soybeans he purchased home; planted them in his fields at the time he thought best; applied glyphosate to kill weeds (as well as any soy plants lacking the Roundup Ready trait); and finally harvested more (many more) beans than he started with. That is how “to ‘make’ a new product,” to use Bowman’s words, when the original product is a seed.

So not only did you not provide what was asked (an example of accidental cross-pollination where Monsanto sued a farmer who did not take specific steps to exploit the accident) but the example you did provide the farmer is clearly in the wrong. If the SC rules unanimously against your case, there is not a ton of ambiguity on the merits.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[david_thornley]

If you have a problem with the patent system, you're not alone. Thing is, lots of companies use patents similarly to Monsanto, and I don't see that they're unusually evil in doing so.

True

[Anonymous Coward]

You are correct. Monsanto and Comcast are prime targets for anti-corporate rhetoric... So they are well-known in anti-corporate circles. That said, Comcast is still a pile of garbage. It should be buried next to the E.T. video game.

Re:True

[ArcadeNut]

Do you really think that's fair?

To the E.T. Video game that is...

Not Even Close to worse company.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets see my personal list involves ripping people off in places of trust.

Comcast provides the service as promised 95% of the time and gets the billing right 90% of the time. The companies below get it wrong while

1. Home Advocate Trustees http://dfi.wa.gov/consumers/alerts/home-advocate-trustees.htm
2. Every Wall Street HFT Trading Firm and Every Firm That Routes to customer orders for a kickback. http://www.businessinsider.com/brokerages-make-millions-selling-orders-to-high-frequency-trading-firms-2014-4
3. Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac and all the other government assumes all the risk NGOs.
4. The United Nations is full of diplomats who ignore the obvious and protest the insignificant.
5. Any company that has a 'gift card' that decays away.
6. Financial planners who put other peoples retirement money in high commission account sucking 50% of the returns over the lifetime of the investment.

Re:Not Even Close to worse company.

[mmell]

So how long have you worked there? 8^)

Mass Suckage

[Tablizer]

All the telecom oligopolies should get the award. Consumer choice, reliability, and customer service are in the crapper. I live in a well-populated suburb near a major city and we have shit choices, just like everybody else. Jeez Louise!

Comcast is a huge improvement over AT&T

[Anonymous Coward]

No one who used AT&T before Comcast took them over would agree that Comcast is the worse company.

Whatever you think of their business practices, they can run a network and keep improving the network's performance. I have very good Internet access speeds, and they improve that every couple of years. The cable network doesn't go down very often.

AT&T is hugely worse in business ethics and was hugely worse at running a cable network.

Back up your vote with your wallet

[EMG at MU]

I know its near impossible with a few of these companies since they are oligarchies but I feel that in order to vote for one of these companies you also should make a personal pledge to avoid doing business with the companies you vote for.

One big problem here is that on one hand people say EA is the worst company in America and then turn around and go out and buy the latest EA game. Companies will listen, but only if you affect them where it matters: the bottom line. No one at these companies gives a shit about this survey.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[ohnocitizen]

Exactly, it's near impossible. And these companies are lobbying hard to remove options that allow consumers to vote with their wallets. We need more than just individual economic pressure to have any realistic impact on companies this big.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[EMG at MU]

Exactly, it's near impossible. And these companies are lobbying hard to remove options that allow consumers to vote with their wallets. We need more than just individual economic pressure to have any realistic impact on companies this big.

Another problem is that people really underestimate individual economic pressure. I know too many people my age (mid 20s) who automatically give up and say that there is no way they can make a difference so why even try. They expect someone else to make the sacrifice and work to address the problem. Look at Target's profits in the wake of their little credit card fiasco:

The widespread theft of Target customer data had a significant impact on the company’s profit, which fell more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter, the retailer reported on Wednesday. The company said net earnings were $520 million in the quarter, down 46 percent from the same period a year earlier, when earnings were $961 million.

Source: New York Times

These companies don't magically make money regardless of what consumers do, they make money because consumers willingly spend money with them. It seems as if lots of people just stopped going to Target after the breach was discovered. Explain why the same thing couldn't happen with Wal-Mart or EA?

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[Anonymous Coward]

I would, but comcast is the only ISP that can provide me with anything other than dial-up service. And there-in lies the real problem. If the FCC would recognize the internet services fits the definition of "Common carrier" way better than phone/tv ever did, recognize the internet services IS essential to 21st century life and either regulate their monopoly or subsidize the cost of putting lies from in multiple carriers to every home in America, then we'd get decent, reasonably priced data into our homes.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[Anonymous Coward]

Not oligarchies per se but "natural monopolies." Classically "highly regulated" in the US but "rent seeking behavior" aka "its cheaper to buy a congressman than to build a better business" has created a US more like Mussolini's definition of fascism than free market.

The classic solution is to regulate the fuck out them but that hasn't worked.

My solution is that if every Comcast customer spent $150 a month on Comcast stock for two year we would own them outright and have the ability to vote in a board of directors that would support stock holders rights and customer right simultaneously. If you also cut off your service at the same time you would drive the price of the stock into the fucking floor and just take your loss as an accelerated buyout schedule. Unfortunately people are short sighted lazy and half of them a dumber than average which is why "rent seeking" is possible in the first place.

Fuck you America you get what you pay for.

f34nor

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[ohnocitizen]

What you are citing is *collective* economic pressure. Big difference.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[Kjella]

I know its near impossible with a few of these companies since they are oligarchies but I feel that in order to vote for one of these companies you also should make a personal pledge to avoid doing business with the companies you vote for.

Aren't the companies you hate typically the ones you're stuck with? If there were good alternatives you'd obviously use them and your opinion would never go much past being shitty, but if you know they have you over a barrel and worse, they know as well but you can't find any better option than to suffer through it - that's when you hate. Like the boss you hate but you can't quit because you need the paycheck and the job market is horrible. Or the obnoxious neighbors who aren't bad enough to get evicted or arrested, but who aren't going to chase you away from your home. Or the bullies that used to harass and ridicule you at school.

Okay, so EA is not such a good example. But ISPs can be near monopolies. Walmart can' make enough mom and pop shops close that you cave. If you have a big mortgage and the value's gone down refinancing with another bank is easier said than done. Getting screwed over once, that hurts. To come crawling back for seconds, that's plain humiliating. But a lot of it is called "just fucking get on with your life" if Wal-Mart is the easiest place to shop, maybe you got better things to do than drive to the other side of town just to spite them. I recently paid a bill I know was unfair (hospital called me in on short notice, I never saw the letter until after the appointment had passed so they billed me for failing to appear), I could have fought it but decided it just wasn't worth the effort. Sometimes, life's too short.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[RoknrolZombie]

Yes, but if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem. As mentioned, sometimes it's tough to break away from your "bad" company (personal examples below), but just like with anything else, you do everything that you can. If you can't do any more, then it's not worth sweating...but if you CAN do more, and you don't, then the fault lies with you.

Example, I've attempted to break away from AT&T. I've been grandfathered into their unlimited data plan, so I'm not in a big hurry to rush away from that, despite the fact that their costs and service ares absolutely terrible. Are they the worst? I can't say so...I haven't seen anyone really "shine" with that service for a long time. So what I did, was instead of subsidizing my "free" phone by signing a contract, I let my contract expire and paid cash for a brand new phone, unsubsidized. I'm not under contract at the moment, so can walk away [i]the instant[/i] I get so pissed at AT&T that they've completely lost my business. I've seen this work in my favor a couple of times since my contract expired - generally the people on the other end of the phone seem pretty shocked that I'm using AT&T with no ongoing terms, and they're generally pretty helpful when they realize that I could leave AT&T. Maybe it's just the person on the other end - maybe they don't really care, but it sure makes me feel better to know that if I really want to leave the company, I can do so in an instant without them charging me bullshit fees.

Wal-Mart is another one, although I don't have a particular beef with the company. I just simply don't like going there - just driving into the parking lot is enough to start a panic attack...by the time I reach the front door I'm ready to cram the Greeters' walker down their throat. So I don't go there, simple as that.

Target? Shit, target showed up on my radar almost 10 years ago with that teenage pregnancy thing, and I haven't shopped there since. The few times I've gone in, I've made sure that I'm using cash. Do what you can.

If [i]everyone[/i] did what they could, many of these problems don't exist. The defeatist attitude is what allows these awful companies to continue to exist and be awful.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[EMG at MU]

My point is that many individuals form a collective. If every person says that individual economic pressure isn't worth it then the collective never grows large enough to make a difference. It's the same thing that happens with voting for third parties, people do not think that their vote matters so they either don't vote or throw it away.

How many thousands of people voted in this survey? If half of them boycotted the companies they voted for for the period of one year the companies would take notice.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[EMG at MU]

I could have fought it but decided it just wasn't worth the effort. Sometimes, life's too short.

They know that, that's why they win.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[PRMan]

Actually, the EA CEO was pretty torn up about it, but yeah, bottom line means way more.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[PRMan]

Sounds like Target should start taking bitcoins. No information to lose.

Consumerist is a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Judging by the photos they post with their stories, they've been trying to turn it into a cat blog for several years now.

Still not AT&T

[Anonymous Coward]

I still prefer doing business with Comcast to doing business with AT&T.

But the way the contest brackets are set up make the consumerist look just as bad at the companies they're rating.

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, I'm not against GMO in general, but Monsanto has some of the most mustache-twirlingly-evil business practices ever.

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Comcast narrowly edged out Monsanto in the finals with 51.5% of the vote.

The only reason I can see for Monsanto even appearing among "contestants" is the serious negative PR work by its competitors. Despite years of trying, anti-GMO crowd is yet to find a provable bad thing to say about GMO in general and Monsanto in particular.

All they have is FUD, but, apparently, very powerful FUD...

Ya... funny you are the only person to see it that way.
"Incredible" is a better word.

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Um WTF? Do you know anything at all about Monsanto? Their business practices are highly questionable when it come to suing farmers who live down wind of their customers. They are engaged in unregulated experimentation on a grand scale with now moral and no oversight. Wheat no has an opioid that makes you hungry for more carbs. How is that OK?

The typo says it all!

[Anonymous Coward]

...subsidize the cost of putting lies from in multiple carriers to every home in America....

That sure is what they do! But I don't think they need the help of Government for that.

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Patent abuse, not GMO. Seed blows in, causes expensive lawyer bills.

Monsanto using MPAA and RIAA tactics

[Anonymous Coward]

Monsanto and Cargil do some really shitty things with their IP when it comes to their seeds - like suing farmers for having Monsanto's crops growing in their fields when they weren't purchased and suing seed washers for alleged violations of IP.

They need a radioactive lead

[mrmeval]

trophy.

One marginally withing NRC limits. ;)

Monsanto is an Intellectual Property extremist

[bzipitidoo]

Heck yeah, we know who Monsanto is. They're the scum who want to patent plant reproduction, and sue farmers for farming. If anything can give a company lots of bad press everywhere, not just in geek circles, it's victimizing innocent farmers with complicated legalese over a grossly obvious right. Aside from the huge problem of that ultimately leading to needing their permission to eat, they don't care if that also leads to the RIAA and MPAA winning the right to force DRM on everyone, and Big Pharma patenting our own genes and us having to pay them license fees just to exist. And some thought paying a levy for breathing the air was draconian.

Re:Monsanto is an Intellectual Property extremist

[warpuck]

If Monsantos prize bull broke down 2 fences, crossed your niebhors pasture, to service your cow, in your pasture. Is Monanto entitled to a stud fee ? DeKalb, a Monsanto company is trying that on farmers who raise their own seed.

As a Comcast customer...

[QuietLagoon]

... I am not surprised that Comcast has won its second Poo award from The Consumerist.

Re:As a Comcast customer...

[Anonymous Coward]

and still you insist on feeding in the stye.

Not Electronic Arts; Dice (BF4) sigh...

[Trax3001BBS]

I really expected them to pull it off again this year. Comcast, and Time Warner Cable must really be a crappy company to beat out Electronic Arts,

BF4 was one fouled up game release, Electronic Arts was even sued over the money they made by talking up a broken game (Battlefield 4), and having Dice release it much earlier than it should of been.

I am disappointed.

Not as bad as all that...

[Kazoo the Clown]

Comcast cable for internet seems fine to me if you don't try to use their DNS servers. Once I switched the DNS, it virtually never goes down. Consequently I've never needed to deal with their support staff. COX Cable on the other hand, seems to be pretty flaky, a friend of mine who is using them for Voip is always losing his connection. I'm using Vonage over Comcast and I never have any problems.

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[wiredlogic]

The food safety alarmists are all about FUD. However there is a serious problem of pesticide producing crops destroying critical parts of the ecosystem needed to sustain pollination (bees and butterflies for instance). There is legitimate reason for concern about the overuse of these sorts of crops.

#2 among...

[Anonymous Coward]

The U.S. is #2 among "populous" countries. Nauru, "a small island in the South Pacific, has an obesity rate of 71.1%, the highest of any country."

Were number one!

[nurb432]

I bet there was an office party after hearing this, as you know Comcast goes out of its way to be a PITA. It cant be by accident.

Re:no trouble signing up customers or employees.

[Anonymous Coward]

if i had mod points i would mod you up!
why do people always say that? especially when trolling as AC's...
Anyway you are right, any slashdotter that would put up with beta will happily use comcrap.
and pay for it.

2014 isn't over yet

[erlegreer]

How can the 2014 contest be over?

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Comcast narrowly edged out Monsanto in the finals with 51.5% of the vote.

The only reason I can see for Monsanto even appearing among "contestants" is the serious negative PR work by its competitors. Despite years of trying, anti-GMO crowd is yet to find a provable bad thing to say about GMO in general and Monsanto in particular.

All they have is FUD, but, apparently, very powerful FUD...

How much does Monsanto pay you to astroturf this awkwardly? Whatever it is, it's too much.

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. If there was a most clueless slashdot member bracket...you'd win.

Protip: stop parrotting what you see on cable news and you won't embarrass yourself.

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[Jarik C-Bol]

It is pretty terrifying the scale at which Monsanto has been carless with its experimentation. Their projects seem to be escaping into the wild and replicating at an alarming rate. http://www.nature.com/news/201... and http://www.kgw.com/news/USDA-N...

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course he does, OP works for them and/or is heavily trolling you.

Come on... really?

[Khashishi]

Shell.

unfair!

[sgt scrub]

Comcast starts out against Yahoo! and Facebook, two complete weenies compared to the companies Time Warner had to beat get the spot. Take EA, Koch, and Salie Mae, and put them in a blender and you won't get a mixture. All 3 turds have the exact same stink and consistency. It says a lot to see Monsato come out dirtier than a company that fought its way through that pile. Time Warner totally should have won.

I actually like Comcast...

[eljasbo]

I really don't see what the fuss about Comcast is. They are definitely the best for the money around here. I get 75 mbps down and 15 up with 4 phone lines and commercial TV for my business for around $300/ month. Nothing else comes close for that cost for commercial service. At&t would charge twice that for crappy 3mbps dsl with 4 phone lines, and then charge long distance on top of that. The only time Comcast service has gone down in the past year was when a tornado and storms ripped through our neighborhood and even then it was back online within 2 hours. Comcast has doubled my Internet speed at home and business at no extra charge during the past year. My sales rep even told me about new rates and encouraged me to get the new priced packages that provide faster speed at cheaper cost, and to inform my clients of such as well. They added HBO and Starz at my house for no additional charge for two years for being a good customer. They recently sent me a letter to inform me I was eligible for 100 mbps service at my home for the same price I previously was paying for 50 and I needed to call to get the new package for the same price. I have never heard about anything even close to that from other carriers. At&t would still charge $500/month for 3mbps awful sdsl if you didn't renegotiate. Comcast on-demand works quite well also. Maybe I am just lucky or in a good area. Most of the problems with service I have seen are due to bad cabling, like the customer using homemade ghetto rigged screw on coax ends and splitters from Walmart to terminate the cable, or trying to get a solid signal over RG58 in instead of RG6. Comcast is actually pretty good comparered to BoA or AT&T, Sprint, or a dozen other companies, for me at least. I really don't understand the hate.

Re:I actually like Comcast...

[will_die]

This survey has no reflect to the truth it is based on how many false slides got sent around on facebook against the company.

Re:I actually like Comcast...

[sabbede]

I work for the largest realty company in my state. We are now a division of the 9th largest company in the world.

We were in talks with Comcast, looking to upgrade the internet connections at our dozens of offices. Things looked great, until they wanted over $9k to run cable to my home office (in a shopping center in the middle of a busy suburb for which they are the only provider). We could have gotten them to drop it, but at the last minute they told us we had to sign 3-year "triple play" contracts for each office.

They are going into one of our mini branch offices. They'll be there between 8AM and noon.

Nothing Sucks Like Comcast

[MarkvW]

They are the WORST. They are the biggest reason why I am a big supporter of municipal cable. When they have it, they abuse consumers with their monopoly power to the max.

Rather interesting

[ruir]

A Company owned by Microsoft elected as the worst in America. Who could tell?

Official Response from Comcast Representative

[fellip_nectar]

[rips off the patches and rubs his nipples] Aw gee, that's just too bad... I guess you could always switch to another cable company...

The only way to win is not to play

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do these companies even enter into this kind of contest?
Free publicity? I really don't see the benefit.
If I were in the PR department I'd advise them to pull out of the contest.

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Big Banks

[RonElliott5693]

I don't understand why this survey missed the big Wall Street Banks that gave us the 2008 crash but no one went to jail. They were (and are) much worse and harmful to us than Comcast and Monsanto. IMO.

Comcast?

[sabbede]

Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

But hey, at least they treat business customers just as crappilly as they do residential customers!

Okay, not really a good thing, but at least its fair. ish.

Alright, they are unrepentant bastards.

Worst just means "biggest"

[adam525]

Hmm. Looks to me like all the contenders for the "worst" companies in the world are just the biggest companies in the world. It makes sense. More people have used Comcast, Verizon, and shopped at Walmart than they have other companies...

Back off, Monsanto boy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, you're the only one talking about GMOs.

Monsanto is in this because they suck, not because of the things (like GMOs) that they are actively sucking at doing. Because they suck. Get it?

One example of the kind of sucky thing they do is might be to brainwash people into acting as unpaid ambassadors for their company - which makes billions of dollars of profit from exploiting their own customers. Another sucky thing is hiring Madison Avenue companies to shill them on websites and manipulate their pages on Wikipedia and other public information sites. They suck.

Re:Back off, Monsanto boy.

[DaveV1.0]

So, they suck because they are like pretty much every successful company with moderately happy customers and an advertising budget?

Re:Back off, Monsanto boy.

[DrGamez]

If everyone sucks then it's ok, right?

I don't get where this line of defense is going.

Re:Back off, Monsanto boy.

[DaveV1.0]

There is no need to defend against "They suck because they are like everyone else!"

A pattern emerges.

[thevirtualcat]

I was curious about historical results of this poll, so I did some digging.

2009 - AIG - Bailed out in 2008, makes big news for giving executives $165M in executive bonuses, $1.2B in total bonuses.
2010 - Comcast - Makes big news by buying NBCUniversal in 2009.
2011 - BP - Deepwater Horizon happened in 2010
2012 - EA - Mass Effect 3 (Not sure how much news this generated, but someone mentioned it above.)
2013 - EA - SimCity's problems made news. Not on the same level as, say BP in 2010, but it certainly came up outside of tech and gaming sites occasionally.
2014 - Comcast - Makes news by trying to buy TWC.

I'm noticing a bit of a pattern here. (Though there does seem to be a bit of a tech bias, unless someone did something particularly egregious.)

Not everyone can have an antenna, sorry.

[Medievalist]

I live in the bottom of a little valley, and I'd need a hundred foot tower to get more than two TV stations.

In my state, it's illegal to have a tower so tall that it could fall outside your property line. My property isn't two hundred feet wide, so no go.

But I ditched Comcast anyway and got Verizon instead. Verizon sucks too, but marginally less, and the FIOS technology is nice, at least, even if the provider isn't.

I too had concerns

[backwardsposter]

I cancelled my cable because of the overpricing and the disregard for customers. How come when we don't pay we lose service, but when we lose service they don't provide a refund? Anyway I don't miss the harassment of cable at all. My only concerns now are they find some way to take away Netflix and over the air broadcasting. Because they have shown us that when you can't compete by being better, compete by being worse.

Silly Me

[Anonymous Coward]

And here I was starting to believe all I heard about the new Comcast :-)

I was sad near the end

[neminem]

Comcast totally deserves to be up near the top - I was just sad because for a while, the race was shaping up to be "banks vs. telecoms", which would have been a way more hilarious semifinals to watch. (More specifically, I was really hoping the *final* would come down to Comcast vs. Time Warner: Whoever Wins, We Lose!)

Re:Huh? Why was Monsanto even on the list?

[mi]

However there is a serious problem of pesticide producing crops

Regardless of how serious this problem is, it does not affect consumers — not directly, not even the "first-level" indirectly — unlike Comcast's shoddy practices. Whey then did Monsanto not only appear on the list run by an organization called Consumerist, but also made it to the close second among the worst?

The only explanation is that Monsanto's competitors are behind the hysteria.